1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) and particularly to IP telephones, capably processing, receiving and transferring voice, data and/or video streams, and being secure and controlled for secure profile management and convergent communications.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the advent of the Internet and particularly its popularity within the recent decade, information, in its multitude of forms, is commonly transferred in various forms using the Internet. This method of communication offers users a cost-effective, flexible and oftentimes convenient approach to information transfer. What is of particular interest is the use of telephones or voice-enabled communication terminals throughout the Internet for transfer of voice, data and/or video streams. In fact, many communication terminals may be placed at various remote locations relative to each other throughout the Internet cloud thereby allowing users to communicate to one another through the Internet.
The use of IP telephones—telephones using Internet Protocol (IP) to communicate over the Internet, any local area network or any other IP network—currently offers less security than that of conventional telephones in the Public Switching Telephone Network. Security, remote access and controllability of communications terminals within the Internet are therefore highly desirable.
The need therefore arises for secure access and optionally remote control to voice-enabled communications terminals, such as IP phones, which are remotely located to one another allowing multiple users to communicate using VoIP using multi-level security to avoid unauthorized access to the functions of the communications terminal.